Music companies and composers are at loggerheads over revenue share of ringtone downloads.
At the MTV Immies awards function held in Mumbai, Pakistan's popular bands -- Strings and Fuzon, performed along with the Indian band Josh and Punjabi pop singer Sukhbir. Film stars such as Priyanka Chopra, Zayed Khan and Fardeen Khan added to the glittering event.
But the high-profile music directors and lyricists of the Indian film industry were conspicuous by their absence. Biggies such as Anu Malik, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Aadesh Shrivastava, Jatin-Lalit, Javed Akhtar, Hariharan and Shaan (who was expected to perform at the event) were not at the event.
"I had reasons to back out," says Shaan, adding that, he was supporting the "cause" of the music industry.
The cause, as it turns out, is the high-decibel controversy related to the demand for equitable share of revenue for their music that ends up as ringtone downloads.
Though the music industry has been tight-lipped about the protest (read boycott of the event), a top music director, on condition of anonymity, says ringtones is a booming business in India "and all we get is a pittance". He claims that the music companies corner a huge share of the revenue "that should be rightfully ours".
Figures on the size of the Indian ringtone market are hard to come by but the global business of ringtones is massive. According to a UK-based research firm ARC Group, the worldwide ringtone market has jumped 40 per cent in the past year and is worth $ 3.5 billion today.
According to a study released by ARC earlier this year, the worldwide sale of ring tones is roughly equivalent to 10 per cent of the $ 32.2 billion global music market.
Till researched numbers on the India market surface, Rakesh Nigam of Indian Performing Rights Society would have us believe that "nearly 200,000 ringtones are downloaded in India everyday".
Bharti Telecom's official spokesperson cheerfully adds: "Downloading ringtones is big business. At Airtel, nearly one million ringtones in 11 different languages have been downloaded by our subscribers in five months."
Clearly, the film and popular song downloads are ringing in the good times for the telecom companies as they charge between Rs 7 and Rs 12 per ringtone download.
Interestingly, an Indian Music Industry official, Savio D'Souza, says that while ringtones is a profitable business for the telecom operators, there is little to cheer about for the music companies.
"The Indian music industry has a turnover of Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion). If the so-called ringtone business is booming how come it doesn't contribute even five per cent to the music industry's revenue," asks D'Souza.
But music directors do not buy IMI's argument. IPRS's Nigam adds that of the Rs 7 for a single ringtone download, the lion's share, that is, nearly 60 per cent goes to the mobile service provider, while 25 per cent rests with the copyright owners (usually music companies, which, in turn, are expected to pay the artists) and 15 per cent is given to the government.
Writers and composers gripe that they are barely paid 12 paise of this Rs 7, if at all. "We simply fail to get our dues," says a known music director.
D'Souza, however, explains that the division of revenue, not just for ringtones but also for music albums, is based on individual contracts signed with the composers and singers.
"If the contract gives the copyright of a music album to the music company then obviously it (the company) has every right on the music."
Retorts a music director, "I think we should have 50 different contracts with the music companies. Now that the ringtone business is booming they should sign fresh contracts with us and show us some respect by agreeing to some of our terms and conditions."
Recently, the music directors and lyricists got together to form Active Society of Composers and Authors, a body that will represent their interests.
However, till the body gets going and resolves the high-pitched battle between the music companies and artists, the service providers continue to enjoy the sweet sound of moolah in their kitty.
